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FOX8 photojournalist Chris Weaver took Brad Jones to a Sim Racing store in Winston-Salem so he could learn how to race virtually.
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Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Oscar Piastri Triumphs At Rain-Delayed Belgian GP
Oscar Piastri At Spa-Francorchamps, rain is a perennial guest. The 2025 Belgian Grand Prix saw no different. The start was delayed by about 80 minutes due to poor visibility and rainy conditions. But once racing got underway, a decisive first-lap move by Oscar Piastri helped secure his win. The McLarens Duel After five laps behind the safety car, polesitter Lando Norris led the pack on a rolling start, his McLaren teammate bitingly close to his gearbox. Tailing him through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, Piastri completed his overtake along the Kemmel Straight for the lead of the Grand Prix. "I knew that Lap 1 was going to be probably my best chance of winning the race, and I got a good exit out of Turn 1 and lifted as little as I dared through Eau Rouge and then it was enough," said Piastri. From that point on, the battle shifted from simply pace to strategy. Race-leader Piastri was called in first and opted for mediums, the faster option, but one that came with higher degradation risk over the race distance. Norris, stopping a lap later, went for the hards, banking on long-run consistency and late-race pace. Piastri's tyres began to fade toward the end, and Norris attempted to capitalize. However, minor mistakes like locking up at Pouhon and again at La Source on the penultimate lap, undid any hopes of a last-lap showdown. In the end, Piastri held firm, taking his sixth win of the season and extending his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 16 points. Charles Leclerc Leclerc's Podium Battle While McLaren fought out at the front of the field, Charles Leclerc was engaged in a battle of his own. The Monegasque qualified third place but keeping the position proved tricky. With the track drying rapidly and a setup favoring dry conditions, Charles Leclerc faced his toughest test early in the race, fighting Max Verstappen in wet conditions. His defensive driving was effective though. By prioritising control and Verstappen losing time in his pitstop, Leclerc managed to keep the Dutchman at bay and managed his pace to hold onto third. This is Leclerc's fourth podium in the last six races. Hamilton Climbs Up The Grid Lewis Hamilton endured a difficult qualifying session, spinning during his lap and exiting early in Q1, leaving him to start 18th on the grid. The race, however, was all about damage limitation. Looking more comfortable in his scarlet Ferrari, the Briton, climbed the grid, overtake after overtake, picking off his opponents until he was in the point-scoring positions. Albon Finishes Sixth For Williams, Alex Albon turned a strong qualifying into a point-scoring result, securing sixth place. His teammate Carlos Sainz, starting from the pitlane, struggled throughout the race and finished 18th. Drivers Criticize Lengthy Belgian GP Delay The Dutchman voiced his opinion on the delayed start, calling the 80-minute wait 'a bit of a shame.' He argued that running a few laps behind the safety car would have improved visibility and that the FIA's decisions were stifling classic wet race excitement. Hamilton echoed this sentiment. 'We obviously started the race a little too late, I would say…I kept shouting like 'it's ready to go, it's ready to go'. And they kept going round and round," he said. With Piastri extending his lead and rivals scrambling to keep pace, there's still plenty to fight for in the championship battle with 11 rounds left. Up next is Hungary. Belgian GP classification 1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 2 Lando Norris (McLaren), +3.415s 3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), +20.185s 4 Max Verstappen (Red Bull), +21.731s 5 George Russell (Mercedes), +34.863s 6 Alex Albon (Williams), +39.926s 7 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), +40.679s 8 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), +52.033s 9 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), +56.434s 10 Pierre Gasly (Alpine), +1m12.714s 11 Ollie Bearman (Haas), +1m13.145s 12 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), +1m13.628s 13 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull), +1m15.395s 14 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), +1m19.831s 15 Esteban Ocon (Haas), +1m26.063s 16 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), +1m26.721s 17 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), +1m27.924s 18 Carlos Sainz (Williams), +1m32.024s 19 Franco Colapinto (Alpine), +1m35.250s 20 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), +1 lap
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
How Oscar Piastri's fearlessness won him the Belgian GP: ‘As brave as I dared'
SPA, Belgium — From second on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri knew he'd likely get one real shot at winning the race. A stunning lap for pole in sprint qualifying on Friday, arguably one of the best by anyone so far this season, had actually left Piastri exposed. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was able to use the long run exiting La Source, up Eau Rouge and Raidillon and along the Kemmel Straight to blast past Piastri, taking a lead he would never relinquish. Strangely, it had been better to start second than first. Advertisement Come Sunday's race, though, it was Piastri who had that 'advantage,' lining up behind teammate Lando Norris after losing out on Saturday afternoon. He'd get the same opportunity Verstappen did, albeit in damp conditions after a rain shower delayed the start by over an hour. That didn't deter Piastri from pulling off a brave, brilliant move to overtake Norris just as they left the crest of Raidillon, ducking out of his teammate's rooster tails and sweeping into the lead. Like Verstappen did one day earlier, Piastri didn't look back, going on to win the race. 'I knew it was going to be crucial,' Piastri said of the move in the post-race news conference. 'I had a good run out of Turn 1 and then tried to be as brave as I dared through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close. 'After that, the slipstream did the rest for me. I knew that was going to be important to win the race today.' After back-to-back defeats to Norris at Spielberg and Silverstone, it was a big weekend for Piastri to break his title rival's momentum and stretch his points lead in the drivers' standings once again — it is now at 16 points. The move through Eau Rouge and Raidillon was a crucial showing that, for all the calm that he shows externally and is arguably his greatest strength, there is a killer instinct that lies beneath; an ability to seize such a moment when it really mattered. The suggestion from McLaren post-race was that Norris was compromised somewhat, admitting that he'd not had the cleanest exit out of Turn 1. Soon after being overtaken, Norris complained on the radio that he was struggling with his battery pack — an important boost with these hybrid power units — only to be informed that a lot of it had been used up on the restart. Andrea Stella, McLaren's team principal, told reporters after the race there was a 'slight anomaly' with the battery, but that it happened to both cars. 'Nothing that should have penalized Lando in particular compared to Oscar,' Stella said. 'We're still checking the data, but this is the initial feedback I received. Advertisement 'I think the overtake ultimately came because it's very difficult for the car that leads the pack to arrive first at corner five. It's not impossible, but it does require you to have a decent advantage as you cross the finish line, which was not the case for Lando at the restart.' Norris's case wasn't helped by a slightly scruffy exit from the Bus Stop chicane as the race returned to green after four laps behind the safety car, allowing Piastri to make a small gain. He then struggled with wheelspin exiting La Source — as the lead car, he was the first to encounter the damp conditions — while Piastri was able to firmly get on the throttle, setting up the chance to go for a move. Piastri knew he couldn't get too close to the rear of Norris's car as they went down the hill toward Eau Rouge and the start of the incline, necessitating a small lift on the throttle. But then it became about negotiating the left, uphill right and kink back left over the top of the hill without losing any of that momentum. A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1) 'The move through Eau Rouge, I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race,' Piastri said, wryly smiling after The Athletic asked when he'd started plotting it. 'I'd been thinking about it for a while, put it that way. Obviously, in those conditions, it's a little bit more difficult than if it's dry. I knew that I had to try and do that.' The wet track meant any thought of taking Eau Rouge and Raidillon flat, as they would with ease in the dry, had to be put aside. It was a question of how little both drivers would be willing to lift, and what momentum they could carry. The data points to Norris actually backing off less than Piastri did through Eau Rouge, carrying a bit more speed and drifting more toward the left as a result. But as they crested Raidillon, Norris had to ease off the throttle slightly, dropping to 88 percent application; Piastri stayed flat out, helping him close up a little more. That gain, combined with the slipstream afforded to Piastri by sitting right behind his teammate's gearbox, was crucial to Piastri making the move and winning the race. As they emerged from Raidillon, Piastri was around 3-5 km/h faster than Norris, setting him up to easily sweep past. The majority of moves along the Kemmel Straight are carried out much closer to the braking zone at Les Combes. In this case, Piastri had to very quickly duck out from behind Norris to avoid touching him. He even had time to cover the inside, having been as much as 13 km/h faster on the straight. Advertisement An impressive move to the watch, and one that took real commitment in the cockpit. 'When I watched the onboard back, it didn't look quite as scary as it felt in the car,' Piastri said, having called the move 'lively' in the parc ferme interview carried out right after the checkered flag. 'I knew that I had to be very committed to pull that off.' Much as Piastri knew that would likely be his best chance to get Norris, Norris was well aware he'd be exposed leading the pack. 'Oscar came past me pretty easily,' he said. 'So even if I had a better Turn 1, his run and the slipstream probably still would have got me.' Even with 39 laps still to run, it was a move that decided the race. Piastri was able to pull out a small buffer to Norris as the track dried. By leading on the track, he had priority when it came to pitting for slick tires, coming in on Lap 12. McLaren did give Norris the option to pit on the same lap as Piastri, according to Stella, but Norris decided to stay out and avoid losing time behind his teammate in the pit lane. 'It was just more painful for me that Oscar got the good lap,' Norris said. 'I had to go one lap longer. That's life.' Norris was able to differentiate from Piastri on strategy by taking hard tires instead of mediums, which would degrade sooner and be trickier to manage until the end of the race. But the extra lap on slicks for Piastri meant his two-second buffer before pitting grew to nine by the time both McLarens had made the switch. Managing the mediums all the way to the end was still a huge ask for Piastri, who felt good 'for about five laps' on the tire before realizing he could be exposed. 'I was a bit nervous considering we had nearly 25 laps to go at that point. So, I had to be a bit careful, but it held on in the end much better than I feared.' By the end of the race, Norris was routinely gaining six-tenths of a second per lap on Piastri, all of which was coming through the tighter middle sector, but he couldn't get any closer than three seconds before the checkered flag. Advertisement This was a victory that summed up why Piastri is such a mighty contender going for his first F1 world title. He managed the race perfectly on the mediums, but to put himself in the lead in the first place, it required a big slice of bravery in a handful of decisive seconds. 'There is very, very little between our two drivers, and this is because the two drivers are racing at a very, very high level,' said Stella. 'We are lucky at McLaren to have two drivers that, deservedly, are fighting for the world championship. 'I think the difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution. We saw in Silverstone that an issue, a sporting issue for Oscar, during the safety car restart and the consequent penalty cost him the race. 'Here we saw that, related to the circuit characteristic, like we said before, it would have always been very difficult for Lando to keep the position, starting first at the safety car restart. 'At the same time, I think Lando didn't help himself by not having a great gap on the finish line. So I think the execution is what is going to make the main difference.' In a year where they are so evenly matched, these are the moments that will prove decisive. On Sunday, it was Piastri who made it really count. (Top photo of Oscar Piastri:)
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Verstappen accuses race organisers of being overcautious with rain delay
Max Verstappen accused race organisers of being overcautious on Sunday when they decided to delay the start of the Belgian Grand Prix by 80 minutes following heavy rain. The four-time world champion said he believed that instead of suspending the race after one formation lap behind the Safety Car, Race Control should have kept the field out on the track to clear standing water. "It wasn't even raining," he said, referring to the decision taken at the scheduled race start time of 1500 local time (1300 GMT). "Of course, between Turns One and Five, there was quite a bit of water. "But if you do two or three laps behind the Safety Car, then it would have been a lot more clear -- and the rest of the track was ready to go anyway. "It's a bit of a shame. I knew that they would be a bit more cautious because of Silverstone, but this also didn't make sense. "Then, it's better to say 'let's wait until it's completely dry' and we'll start on slicks because this is not really wet weather racing for me." Instead of staying out, however, the field were taken back into the pit lane to wait for more than an hour, waiting until improved weather conditions prevailed. The race then began with a rolling start after four laps behind the Safety Car. Verstappen finished off the podium for the third consecutive race as series leader Oscar Piastri led team-mate Lando Norris home in a convincing McLaren 1-2. "On the intermediates, we made a choice with the set-up and then they only allowed us to drive in almost slick conditions," said the Dutchman. "That was a bit disappointing because we spoke, after Silverstone, about being a little more cautious, but this was the other extreme for me. "So, the choice that we made with the set-up of the car was then the wrong one, because they didn't allow us to race in the wet. "And, once we had the dry tyres, we were just too slow on the straights. That with all the general balance problems I have with this car just made everything worse." str/ea
